<CSB>About 10 years ago, a friend's dad orders her a 42-inch flat screen TV. (This is when those ran about $3000). Two TVs show up: a 42-inch and a 36-inch. After spending a month or so trying to get them to come pick up the extra they said "fark it", used it (in box) as a baby gate for a while and then gave it to me and my wife when we bought our house.</CSB>

My wife and I chatted about this last night and what we would do. We concluded that we would make a call or two, drop an email or two and let them figure it out. If they were going to be difficult about it and not make it easy for me to return the superfluous 4 iPads, I would fall back on Federal Law saying that what is shipped to me is fair game and mine now.

I remember a few years ago, my sister ordered some clothing online from Victoria's Secret and instead of sending her the 3 bras, 3 shirts and 2 pairs of pants that she ordered, they sent her an entire boxes of each item. So she ended up getting something like 40 of each type of bra, 50 or so of each shirt and 30 of each type of pant. She basically ended up with several thousand dollars worth of stuff.

She called customer service and they would not believe her that they sent this stuff to her. She emailed pictures and they were at a loss on what to do. They refused to send her new shipping labels to send this stuff back...So she called up the closest store and spoke with GM and told her about all this stuff. My sister was told that she could not bring the stuff to the store and that she needed to ship the stuff back on her dime. Then they told her that she could take some items to one store and some items to another store and only ship some back...all very confusing.

My sister was obviously pissed at this point and simply wanted the stuff gone. She was trying to do the right thing and send the stuff back, even though she legally did not have to. I do not know how, but over the course of about a week and call after call, email after email, my sister finally got a hold of some regional VP and laid him the fark out and told him that he had one day to fix this situation, get all the shiat out of her apartment, or she was going to sell all this stuff on Craigslist, eBay, burn it, send it to charity, etc.

The next morning some District Manager showed up at her apartment, apologizing profusely for the hoops she had to jump through to do the right thing. He got all the boxes out of her apartment and on to his truck - there were something like 25+ boxes all together. He refunded her purchase and she got to keep the stuff she originally paid for and he gave her a $1000 gift card too!

Amazing how much effort it took to do the right thing. My sister said never again, she will simply keep the items and do as she pleases.

jonny_q:Teiritzamna: Well the Consumerist should know that the proposition that "anything shipped to your home is yours" is not actually a legal doctrine. While it is true that under the rules of contract/restitution, you are under no obligation to pay for the mistakenly sent items - which is to prevent old scams wherein someone would send you, say, a tie in the mail and then charge you $50 - if best buy or whomever asked that you sent the merch back, you are under a legal obligation to do so (unless you reasonably changed position such that the disgorgement would work harm upon you - think accidentally spending money mistakenly placed in your bank account because you legitimately believed it was a bonus or some such). Now they have to pay for the shipping and all - but you cant just reply "nope, mine now"

Do you have any citations for that? I'm not convinced that having the "seller" pay for return shipping is enough to prevent companies from trying to run the scam you described. Also, they would have to prove that (a) it was a mistake and not intentional and (b) they're aware they made the mistake (and somehow did it anyway).

Q. What should I do if the unordered merchandise I received was the result of an honest shipping error?

A. Write the seller and offer to return the merchandise, provided the seller pays for postage and handling. Give the seller a specific and reasonable amount of time (say 30 days) to pick up the merchandise or arrange to have it returned at no expense to you. Tell the seller that you reserve the right to keep the merchandise or dispose of it after the specified time has passed.

Teiritzamna:/it does make me think that we should open a service to just randomly mail people hazardous waste as a way of getting rid of it. Sorry, you are on the hook for that Methylethylketone, it was mailed to your house.

Back in the day I heard stories of fly by night companies (probably mob) filling up warehouses with toxic waste, and letting the mortgages default. Imagine how surprised (and sad) foreclosing banks were to discover that, due to how messed up our toxic waste laws are, that it was now their problem.

Silverstaff:When an ATM dispenses a huge wad of money, you know that money isn't yours, you're taking it from the ATM knowing you aren't supposed to have it. You are taking the effort to remove it from the ATM and walk off, when you could just leave it at the machine (or immediately deposit it back on the spot, with a note written on the deposit slip that it was dispensed in error)

My bank doesn't use deposit slips anymore. If I deposited it the money would just go back into my account with no paper trail.

And trying to explain that to them would be an exercise in frustration.

Teiritzamna:Once again - there is a world of difference between purposeful mailing you crap and then demanding payment, and accidentally shipping you something and then asking for it back. The FTC site is discussing the fact that you are under no legal obligation to pay for such goods - which is true. But in the case of a mistake if they demand the merch back, you dont have a legal right to possession.

In this case how would they know? The invoice said one so one is what was shipped to you.

db2:Strictly speaking, yes, it's legal to keep the merchandise. However, in addition to the law, there are concepts of 'good faith', 'bad faith', and 'being a dick wad'. If the company is obviously not trying to grift you, and simply made an operational error, I'd at least have the decency to contact them about it, and let them decide what they want to do. And in this case, it looks like that's what happened.

I had something kind of like this happen with an ebay purchase recently. They sent the wrong item (the part numbers were extremely similar). I told them about it, they sent the right item, included a return label for the wrong one, and I sent it back.

It's like the "scanner" law here in Michigan - if an item is rung up for the wrong amount, you are technically entitled to both the correct price, and a refund of ten times the amount of the error, up to $5. But I know mistakes happen, so I won't call them on the second part of it unless they're being huge dicks, or obviously trying to rip off customers (fortunately, I haven't had to do this once yet). Generally, I'm content with the store just honoring the advertised price.

Oh, but I'm not paying for the extra merchandise or the return shipping, though. They can have the stuff back, but they're going to have to send me a shipping label, or arrange for pickup. Unless they tell me to keep it, in which case I will.